Forever Home (Sawtooth Shifters, #1) by Kristen Strassel Page B

Ryker’s barn. They’d started a livestock smuggling business. Hunting was harder every season with Granger Falls expanding into our territory. Farms were easy prey and that kind of meat went for serious money in the forest.
    They’d been stupid and lazy about it. Ryker was an old bastard, but he was one of the first wolves who managed to acclimate with humans in Granger Falls. I had no doubt he was running his livestock on the black market. Otherwise, he’d never have all these meatheads doing security for them. Had the Lowes been caught with Ryker’s livestock, it would’ve started a war between the packs. We were minutes away from stopping them when we got caught. The Channings had always kept order in the forest. For generations, our family had been the peacekeepers.
    Now Ryker was using that to his advantage with his very own gladiator ring.
    Blood and bad decisions packed the stands every month. No two fights were the same. Over the last six months, we’d been conditioned to be prepared for the worst case scenario at all times.
    Ryker scanned over the seven of us. “You.” He pulled on Shea’s chain. Fuck, Shea didn’t have any limits or any conscience. He’d been a bloodthirsty lunatic since we were kids. I considered it a weakness. Major needed to get a rein on his brother. The pack only had room for one alpha.
    I didn’t care which one of them I fought, but tonight it looked like the opponents were already chosen. Ryker hated a fair fight. The crowd had already placed their bets and Ryker loved to protect house money.
    “And you.” Our chains were tangled, and all four of us skidded forward. Ryker exhaled loudly, pushing one of his thugs out of the way so he could untangle the chains, pulling roughly on them while he worked. We all stumbled off balance as the chains came free. One more tug made it clear who he wanted. Archer.
    “No!” I dove at Ryker, who responded by kicking me in the ribs. The old man was rattled when I latched onto his ankle; he pried his bloody leg free of my grip. My neck snapped back, and a boot landed on my head. The thug didn’t press down hard enough to break anything, just held me down as Ryker landed one last blow to my stomach.
    Archer refused to move, digging his paws in the dirt and staring at me, Baron, and Dallas. “Save it for the ring,” I yelled to my little brother. The pain in those blue eyes would haunt me forever. Ryker dragged him through the dirt, and I nodded to him. Six months in captivity left me weak, but I’d give my brother everything I had. Archer understood. He picked up his feet, tail up, prancing with all the pride a beaten wolf could muster beside Ryker.
    The thugs pulled us to the side of the ring. The crowd roared at the sight of us, and every month I was disgusted to see so many familiar faces come out to watch us fight. When we were human, we called some of these people friends. Or we had. If they had any idea what we were, they’d see this for what it was. Murder.
    “I’m sorry, man,” Major said to me as the thugs hooked us into our places along the side of the ring. “Archer doesn’t deserve this. Shea won’t show him any mercy. He wants his freedom.”
    Straining against the chain one more time, at my best I would’ve broke right through it. “I wouldn’t respect him if he gave any less than his best.”

Chapter Two
    T rina
    “This is disgusting,” I muttered to Randy, the police sergeant who’d volunteered to come from Ketchum to help with the rescue. Granger Falls wasn’t big enough to have animal control, and I needed to call in the big dogs, no pun intended. I was tired of having to rely on everyone else to fix things. Once word came in about possible dog fights at Ryker’s Farm, I immediately put a large-scale rescue into motion. If this shithead was treating these dogs this way, there was no telling what the condition of the rest of the animals was.
    I first heard about the fights last month, but we didn’t have